No Beechnut tie-in planned

Published 4:37 pm, Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Contrary to some residents' fears, Bellaire's 18-month, $6.7 million Baldwin Avenue drainage project will not include a tie-in to Beechnut Street.

Mayor Phil Nauert said earlier this month that he had been questioned by some residents watching work on the project who thought they saw evidence of preparations for a connection between Baldwin and Beechnut.

"People have expressed concerns to me that it looks like Baldwin Avenue will outfall (connect) at Beechnut and thus create cut-through traffic," he said.

Director of Public Works Joe Keene said people may have gotten a mistaken impression based on work they were seeing.

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"The contractor needed more space to work, and some fencing was removed at the end of the street to provide more room," he said. "That may be what caused the concerns, but no, there are no plans to connect Baldwin to Beechnut."

The project was undertaken as part of a $41 million bond initiative approved by voters in 2005. It was among a number of priorities Nauert named when assuming office in January.

Much of the impetus for the project came from home damage from 2001's Tropical Storm Allison. The storm flooded more than 1,400 Bellaire homes, and the damage on the south side was the worst. The National Hurricane Center estimates that Allison did approximately $4.8 billion in damage in the Houston area.

"Tropical Storm Allison was devastating, and the flooding on the south side, especially in the Southdale area, was a real wake-up call. It was like a bathtub," Nauert said in January.

The project is designed to help drain a 100-year storm, which is one that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in that location within a year.

Keene expects it will take the entire 18 months to finish the project, begun in February.

"This is a large project with many moving parts," he said.

"There is work to be done on the storm sewer, sanitary sewer; Centerpoint is relocating gas lines. There is concrete removal and the work to prepare the soil and stabilize the surface for the new street."

Keene said as many as four crews are working at once, addressing different sections of the project.

"All is going as planned. Things at this point are going great. We have generally had good weather and the materials have been showing up on time," he said.

He said the impact the project is having on drainage in the area won't be certain until the street itself is complete. He did notice, however, that the recent heavy rains have seemed to drain off well.

"I came out after the heavy rains (on May 11) and rode Baldwin on that next morning. Everything is looking good," Keene said.

He said crews are working hard to alleviate as much disruption to the residents as they can.

"Streets are only partially closed with at least one lane remaining open east to west. We try to limit the amount of time a resident will have to wait. There may be an instance where we have to get some equipment out of the way to let someone through, but we are working to minimize interruption," Keene said. Residents will be notified by letter of street closures and other disruptions, he added.